Blind Gods - Jack Adler

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Résumé :
Spears fly like thunderbolts from the gods. King Agis of Sparta wakes from a vision that shakes his soul-and propels him into a battle off the battlefield. Barely nineteen, Agis dares to challenge the corrupt order that has hollowed out his city. He vows to cancel debts, redistribute land, and restore the fierce equality that once made Sparta great. But enemies close in: the ephors who hold the reins of power, nobles who cling to wealth, and even his co-king Leonidas, hardened by Persian luxury. In a city where betrayal lurks behind every oath, Agis must fight not only for reform but for survival. Will his dream herald Sparta's rebirth-or his own downfall? Step into ancient Sparta's intrigue and tragedy in Blind Gods, a sweeping tale of ambition, sacrifice, and the high cost of vision....

Biographie:
Jack was raised in Brooklyn. When he was 14 years old, one of his uncles took him to Aqueduct Race Track and thus commenced Jack's lifelong love affair with the Sport of Kings. Searching for winners has been Jack's white whale. Jack graduated college in '66. Summers, in college, he worked as a hot walker at Belmont. After receiving his Master's in Cultural Anthropology, Jack spent the next few years abroad, studying for his Ph.D. at a British University. Two of those four years were spent doing field work in Ste. Luce, a fishing village on Martinique's North East coast. Eventually, Jack became disenchanted with academia, whereupon he migrated to Wall Street, where he found that his grandmother was correct when she told him, Rich or poor, it's good to have money. He retired in '98. Jack lives in a gated community in New Jersey. He spends his time golfing, reading, hanging out at the racetrack, and enjoying time with his family: his lovely wife of 54 years, his three children, their spouses, and what to date are his five grandchildren....

Sommaire:
Spears fly like thunderbolts from the gods--and the nightmare is only beginning. In 244 BCE, nineteen-year-old Agis takes the throne of a Sparta that has forgotten what made it great. The legendary warriors have grown fat on gold and luxury. The helots--a conquered people forced to till Spartan land for Spartan masters--seethe with suppressed fury. And the five powerful ephors who truly control the city have no interest in change. Agis dares anyway. His plan is as radical as it is dangerous: cancel crippling land debts, redistribute the vast estates hoarded by a few hundred families, and offer citizenship to the very people Sparta has enslaved for generations. His own mother calls him insane. His wife, the beautiful Agiatis, warns of forces he cannot see. And his co-king Leonidas, fresh from the opulence of the Persian court, watches with cold calculation. Yet Agis is not alone. His fierce companion Amphares has pledged everything to the cause. In the mountains, a helot fugitive named Ketros leads a desperate band who dare to dream of freedom. And a mysterious Hebrew woman from Jerusalem named Zara arrives with a proposition that could change the balance of power across the ancient world. Three love stories. A web of betrayal spun by those closest to him. And a young king who must decide how much he is willing to sacrifice for a city that may not deserve saving. Blind Gods is a sweeping novel of ancient Sparta--where ambition and idealism collide, where loyalty is the rarest currency, and where the gods watch in silence as mortals destroy what they love most....